UK Muslim schools head vows to support struggling white students

Hamid Patel said it was a ‘disgrace’ that working-class white boys were failing

Schools in coastal regions such as Blackpool have suffered. AFP

The chief executive of three high-performing Muslim schools in the UK has said he will work to support struggling schools as it emerged that white, working class boys were doing especially poorly in education.

Hamid Patel, who heads up Star Academies, made the comments after figures showed deprived coastal regions of the UK, where the population is largely white, were making little academic progress.

Three schools run by Star Academies, all Islamic, have shown the highest national progress. It is now expected to refocus its attentions from inner-city areas dominated by ethnic minorities to elsewhere.

"There is no doubt a white child has advantages. You only have to look at the statistics on employment, average pay, the prison system and even life expectancy. This underlines how severe our issues are with white working-class boys that, despite the inherent advantages, they do so badly," Mr Patel told The Times.

He said it was a “disgrace” that only one in seven white working class boys would pass national exams in English and maths, which are taken at 16.

“To achieve sustained improvement will take time but we hope… to take on other schools which also have been struggling for many years, in communities along the northwest coast of England,” Mr Patel added.

The UK government judges schools on how much progress students make between early schooling and the national exams at 16.